Gulf Coast residents who did not purchase flood insurance because they lived outside areas considered at high risk of flooding — but whose homes were nevertheless ravaged by Hurricane Katrina — would be in line for an unprecedented government bailout under a budget package approved Monday by the House of Representatives.If the $29 billion earmarked for Katrina relief in a defense appropriations bill that the House passed Monday morning wins final congressional approval, up to $11.5 billion will go toward those uninsured flood victims in Mississippi and Louisiana. The relief still faces serious hurdles in the Senate. It was tacked onto a broad $453 billion defense budget bill. That bill also includes several unrelated measures that are controversial and could bring down the whole bill, including authorization to drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and compromise language for a ban on cruel treatment of terrorism detainees. ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Hong Kong police yesterday charged 14 people with unlawful assembly in connection to violent anti-World Trade Organization protests on Dec. 17, and released 944 people detained because of the riot. The 14 people charged included 11 South Koreans aged between 31 and 46, a 29-year-old Japanese, a 22-year-old Taiwanese and a 41-year-old Chinese, the government said in a statement. All were refused bail by Magistrate Garry Tallentire, who adjourned the case until Dec. 23, the South China Morning Post reported. Running battles between activists armed with steel rods ripped from security fences and baton wielding police who fired tear gas within 100 meters of the conference left 137 people, including 67 police, injured on Dec. 17. Police arrested more than 1,000 people in the incident. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a7VxpWnwhOWU&refer=home

A seaplane carrying at least 16 people crashed Monday off Miami Beach within sight of the city's high-rises, and at least six people were killed, authorities said. Scuba divers and rescuers in speedboats struggled to reach the victims. The propeller-driven Chalk's Ocean Airways plane went down around 2:30 p.m. "We're still trying to get people out of the water," said Javier Otero, Miami Beach Fire Department support services chief. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil said at least six bodies were recovered. Law enforcement officers searched for victims via boats and helicopters and were joined by others in private boats, on Jet Skis and on surfboards. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1421848

Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to win the leadership of the ruling right-wing Likud party, TV and radio exit polls suggest. Mr Netanyahu is thought to have won 47% of the vote, with closest rival Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom polling 32%. The leadership contest comes after PM Ariel Sharon left the party last month. A general election is set for March. Mr Netanyahu, 56, opposed Mr Sharon's pull-out of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip earlier this year. He quit his cabinet post as finance minister in protest at the move. Hardline candidate Moshe Feiglin is said to have won 15% of the vote, with agriculture minister Israel Katz in fourth place with 6%. Candidates need to secure more than 40% of the vote to avoid the contest going into a second round. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4543906.stm

About 400 pounds of explosive material was stolen from a research facility in New Mexico, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed today. The theft was discovered Sunday night by local authorities. ATF agents are investigating the large theft from Cherry Enginering, a company owned by Chris Cherry, for decades the senior explosives scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Also, 2,500 detonators were missing from a storage explosive container, or magazine, in the name of Cherry Engineering. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1421579&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

A flight attendant was in control of a Cypriot Helios Airways plane before it crashed on a Greek hillside on Aug. 14, killing all 121 people on board in Europe’s worst air disaster this year, experts said on Monday.Aviation experts said after re-enacting the doomed Boeing 737-300 flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague, that the steward, who had some flight training and used an emergency oxygen kit, actually flew the plane for 10 to 12 minutes.“We have indications that (he) controlled the plane. He took a portable oxygen device and opened the cockpit door using a code,” Seraphim Kamoutsis, head of the Greek investigations team, told a news conference after the simulation. Investigators are trying to work out what happened on the plane to render its two pilots unconscious, leaving the aircraft in the hands of the flight attendant before it crashed from lack of fuel. Until the simulation, it was not clear whether he managed to fly the plane or just grappled with controls....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10507748/from/RSS/